I left the man cave twice on Wednesday to walk round the corner to my parish church. It was Ash Wednesday, so I went to the morning Mass to receive the ashes and back at midday – as I’ll do every weekday when I am in the UK – to take part in the Stations of The Cross. My main reflection on these intensely spiritual practices is that I have discovered a building that is equally as cold as the man cave. More so in fact, as I can at least crank up the heating chez Watson.
I understand that all readers will not share my enthusiasm for matters spiritual and, even if they do, the brand represented by the Roman Catholic Church to which I adhere may not be their cup of communion wine. So be it; life goes on, and we live in peace as either atheists and believers, or believers of a different kind. I would be happy if everyone came my way but have no wish to impose my beliefs on you and, I hope, that is reciprocated. Yet according to our glorious King, the Grand Mufti of Highgrove, we have much to learn from the ‘religion of peace’.
Lent
Which brings me nicely to the season of Lent. I believe there have been some ramblings about Lent on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in the mornings, according to our parish priest. But, as I don’t listen except in the car, I’ve not heard any of these. But I was listening in the car on Ash Wednesday and there was an advert for a forthcoming series of programmes for Lent called Power and Poverty.
Looking at the titles of the actual episodes, there seems little to worry about but why the series title Power and Poverty? It simply does not convey anything about Lent which is about repentance and sacrifice. Perhaps a series titled Repentance and Sacrifice conveys ideas that are anathema in the modern age.
Other than Power and Poverty, there is a programme on The Creed (the Christian statement of faith) from 2025 and Individual Talks, as well as the usual diet of ‘of the day’ programmes: ‘thought’ and ‘prayer’, both frequently given over to other faiths including the dreaded Islam. And now that the ‘I’ word has been mentioned, let’s look at what will be on offer during Ra-MAD-an.
Well, plenty on offer for our Muslim community, and no obfuscatory titles to obscure the content. We have a range of ‘documentaries on fasting, the impact of Ramadan on communities, and special episodes of food and faith-themed shows.’ Hold me back.
Specifically, we have: A Very Different Ramadan; The Food Programme: Faith, Fasting and Feasting; On Your Farm: Halal in Harmony; Sunday (which ‘often covers ethical and religious issues related to Ramadan, such as how football clubs cater to fasting players’); and Behind the Bling with Ebraheem Al-Samadi. The mind boggles at Halal in Harmony, and I strongly suspect that His Grand Eminence the Sultan of St James Palace may have a hand in this one given my recent review of Harmony at last in these pages. I guess that the harmony of non-stunned Halal slaughter will not be explored.
Google informs me that Ramadan started at sundown on 17 February. Even though you can tell when there will be a new crescent moon on your iPhone weather app, announcing the start of Ramadan requires a visual sighting by someone in Saudi Arabia. How quaint.
However, we won’t be in any doubt about when Ramadan starts. It will be all over the BBC with royalty, Prime Ministers, Mayors and other politicians wishing our Muslim community whatever it is they wish them during this period of self-imposed alternate fasting and bingeing. Meantime, Lent is underway and, like last year, not a dickie bird from Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Westminster.
A man in his 60s has been arrested in Norfolk
As I write, news is breaking that a prince formerly known as Prince has been arrested. The charge is misconduct in public office. Talk about kicking a man when he’s down. I have absolutely no respect for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, having read and reviewed Andrew Lownie’s book Entitled for these pages. But it is quite hard to fathom what is going on here. Why him and only him? Why now and what next?
Perhaps I am overthinking things, but I can’t help suspecting that many who were in the Epstein net will sleep a bit easier in their beds, at least for a while, while others must be shitting themselves. There is nothing nice about Randy Andy, and he’ll fling mud around like nobody’s business if the case proceeds. Or, perhaps, he will take the time-honoured and honourable way out.
Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.
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”The Roman Catholic Church to which I adhere may not be their cup of communion wine.”
It hasn’t been my cup of communion wine since 1964 when at the age of 11 a deranged Irish Catholic priest (are there any other sort?) let the cat out of the bag during one of his hellfire sermons at 9 o’clock mass one Sunday morning. There’s a great meme that parallels what he said but I’ll condense it down:
Priest: ”I am only God’s messenger!”
Congregation: ”What is God’s message?”
Priest: ”Give God’s messenger money!”
His actual words were along the line of ”Every family should give 2/6d in the £ (Pre decimalisation of course) out of their weekly earnings to the Catholic Church.
That’s when the penny (or the 2/6d in the £) dropped for me, that religion was a money spinning scam. I went home and told my mother I was never going back and despite all her threats of eternal damnation and hellfire with the other heretics I stuck to my guns and have never been back. To this day I have been an atheist.
That same priest was in the news at a later date as there were some mutterings and rumours about his ‘faith healing community’ that he set up (With donations from his flock) that he was getting a little too touchy feely with the more nubile of his adherents during the ‘laying on of hands’ And his association with one ‘special friend’ in particular. All hushed up by the Diocese of course.
Good point, add to that the sick morbid obsession with venerating saintly dead bodies and bits of bodies because they died in the cause of Faith – yet don’t try too hard (or at all) to emulate these esteemed paragons of virtue because you might catch flu and die.
I’ll ignore the first part of your comment, Nathaniel, because life’s too short, but, for your information – assuming you are speaking about the unconscionable decision of the bishops of the UK to close churches during the Covid scam – be aware that there WERE some sound priests who worked underground to provide the Sacraments. More than that I cannot say or their faces will be adorning the front page of the tabloids, but, believe me, there are some solid priests out there, working away in the background, and offering up the insults that come their way, and do so for the good of souls – including yours.
Mick,
To reduce the “message of the clergy” to being all about money because they have to eat and live, is a tad unfair. Keeping the church warm and a roof over our heads, costs money. If that particular priest took it upon himself to specify a particular amount to donate, then he should not have done that but instead of upping sticks and moving to atheism, maybe you could have made the point that he doesn’t have the authority to do that. Moving to atheism, though, is so ironic, because – just like the rest of us, perhaps even more so – atheists depend on God for their very existence, LOL!
However, as you go on to reveal, that particular priest was clearly one of those with whom the Church has been afflicted these past 60-odd years, when the Church has been going through an horrendous crisis – a crisis which some describe as a crisis of faith, a crisis of obedience, but which is actually a crisis in the priesthood. One of the great saints (St John Eudes, almost certain) writes that bad priests are a punishment from God. And what a punishment it is turning out to be. But nothing, nothing whatsoever, justifies abandoning Christ which is what you do when you leave His Church because as that other great saint said – Anglican convert, St John Henry (Cardinal) Newman – “Christ and His Church are one.”
I’m sorry, too, that you quoted the blasphemous remark from the article referencing “communion wine” to make the old saying “not my cup of tea” more “cool” or more contextually fitting. It’s neither. It’s blasphemous but that’s not your fault and we can hardly blame the author either, since he doesn’t even know the name of the Church (unless of course he is a man who was born in Rome?) The name of the Church is merely “Catholic” as St Ignatius pointed out way back in the first days of Christianity.
The other thing our “Roman Catholic” seems not to have heard when he attended his church on Ash Wednesday, was the Gospel reading (Matthew 6) about not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing (i.e. don’t boast about your Lenten – or any other – sacrifices) Still, undeterred, our author tells us that “It was Ash Wednesday, so I went to the morning Mass to receive the ashes and back at midday – as I’ll do every weekday when I am in the UK – to take part in the Stations of The Cross. ”
Well, since I belong to that outcast group within the Catholic Church, those of us who attend the ancient Mass, the Mass attended by the saints and for which the martyrs spilled their blood, I couldn’t get to a Latin Mass, or ashes or Stations of the Cross. Such is life for those of us who don’t go along with the Protestantisation of the Church – whether by using the name fashioned by the 16th century revolutionaries (enter Luther & Co) or the New, Protestantised Mass. As I say, such is life.
But, Mick, one other point about your decision to embrace atheism – I’m just surprised that, when you told your mother you would not return to the Church, she wasted her time telling you to go to Hell! I bet when she said that, you replied: “Thank God I’m an atheist!”
Can one be ‘in public service’ if not actually appointed or in possession of a contract of employment?
Surely claiming ‘diplomatic immunity’ is still the sensible answer?
How many normal people have a brother who is such a shit that they wouldn’t tip you off about your impending arrest and suggest you escape pronto?
Playing to the fickle woke public audience and having only sycophantic advisors will lead to the fall of the House of Windsor.
Nathaniel,
The police did not let either Andrew of the King know about the arrest, in advance. Neither knew until it happened.
And I hope the House of Windsor does not fall – I’m terrified enough at the thought of five years of the current Labour Government: President Starmer is unthinkable.
Firstly, apologies for typo above – “Andrew of the King” should be “Andrew OR the King”.
Secondly, in all the commentary about this “bombshell” arrest, I’ve yet to read or hear anyone acknowledging the fact – truth? – that any one of us, born into such a life of wealth and advantage, may have fallen into similar temptations to benefit illicitly from our privileged lifestyle. A rather long-winded way, I suppose, of saying “There but for the grace of God, go I”…
With apologies to Mick and Fellow/Sister Atheists!